Baseball Fun: Manly Baseball Players with Not-so Manly Names

Sports, including baseball, are thought of as manly endeavors, reserved for the big and the buff, the strongest of the strong and those in peak physical condition.

Though many baseball players fit that bill, their (often unfortunate) names would suggest that they are anything but the epitome of masculinity.

In fact, some baseball players’ names are downright womanly.*

*Not that I’m saying women can’t be athletic.

I’m not talking about these guys’ last names—there have been some Lindseys (like John Lindsey) and Shannons (Mike Shannon, for example) throughout the annals of baseball history, but lots of people have weird last names.

I am talking about baseball players with peculiar (read: girly) first names.

Speaking of Lindsey, there have been two players with that first name, albeit with an alternate spelling—Lindsay Brown and Lindsay Deal.

There have been three players with Courtney as a last name, but only one with it as a first: former Cubs pitcher Courtney Duncan.

In 1932 there played a second baseman for the Boston Red Sox named Andy Spognardi—nothing weird about that. Except, oh yeah, his real first name was Andrea (though he gets something a pass—his full name is Andrea Ettore Spognardi, an Italian name. Andrea basically means “Andrew.”)

I didn’t know if I should include Sandy on this list because it seems more like a unisex name than one commonly associated solely with women. That said, it seems more of a woman’s name than a man’s name, so here it appears.

In the sports world where the muscular, the ripped, the eight percent body fat guys rule, there still exists those few who—despite probably being just as athletic as everyone else—have names that would not indicate their status as Greek Gods among this country’s gelatinous pool of adiposity.

But be careful mocking these men because of their names—though they might sound unmanly, they could still no doubt hit your head over the fence for a home run.